Precision Water System = Quality Concrete

As a concrete producer, you know the moisture content of your sand and aggregates directly impacts your ability to produce consistent, quality concrete. While there are a variety of moisture sensors offered to measure this moisture, typically these are either a separate, stand-alone program or require manual calculations or a spreadsheet to calibrate.

Production of high strength, architectural, or self-consolidating concrete mixes requires precise management of the total water in the mix to achieve specified performance results. Today, most producers attempt to guess on what the range of moisture is in their materials then adjust +/- 5% of total water (typically around 1.5 gal/yd), run samples, then determine the hold back water required. All of this is a lengthy, costly, and ultimately a manual process. The Precision Water System for COMMANDbatch is a fully integrated water management system which provides a new set of tools that simplify and automate the management of moisture compensation. Producers can save money by reducing the amount of testing required by the QC staff and time wasted adding water to the batch.

How does the Precision Water System (PWS) work? The PWS first provides for the automatic capture of a moisture sample with the click of a button. One or more samples for different materials can be captured at a time, with the sample information automatically stored in the PWS application. At a later time, when bake out values are available, these results are entered into the PWS for each material sampled. The PWS automatically takes each bake-out pair and calculates the moisture, compensating for absorption, performs an out-of -bounds check, then stores the test values permanently in the Precision Water System database. Once calibrated, the system operates independently, continuously passing readings into your COMMANDbatch system (or to other equipment if you choose the “stand alone” option.) Operator intervention is not required at any time.

Want to use a single bin for a variety of materials? No problem! The Precision Water System stores a separate calibration for each probe-bin-material combination.When the operator informs COMMANDbatch that a different material is now in a bin, the Precision Water System instantly and automatically reconfigures itself to the correct material moisture calibration profile.

How expandable is the Precision Water System? Each Precision Water System offers the ability to calibrate and measure up to 12 moisture probes on a variety of materials up to 1” coarse aggregates. Expanding the number of measured materials with PWS will reduce.

How difficult is probe calibration with the Precision Water System? A major benefit of the system is the ease and accuracy of the probe calibration. The system allows each probe to be calibrated separately to its corresponding material, supporting any number of moisture sample and bake-out pairs for each probe-bin-material combination. A dashboard allows the operator to review the readings of each moisture probe in a variety of views; Active Calibration View, Current Moisture View, Calibration History View, etc. With the ability to visually confirm the probe’s response to moisture, the operator can assess if the latest readings are “within the margin of error” and not execute the recalibration process. On the other hand, if bake-out results indicate that the probe is off a little, the operator can simply push the recalibration button and a new calculation will instantly be performed. As more and more bakeouts are accumulated, the program adjusts the probe calibration to reflect the new data, resulting in a very accurate calibration. A “Lock and Load” sample mode allows for automatic capture of probe readings for the next bake-out and replacement probes can be recalibrated with a single bake-out.

So why continue to struggle with loads that are not produced at the desired slump, increasing your costs and potentially damaging your reputation and customer satisfaction?

Active Calibration View
Shows the bake-outs currently used, the resulting calibration slope, and how the latest moisture samples test out against the current calibration. There are also red ‘guard rails’ that depict bake-out results that are out of range from normal and are not used.

Calibration History View
Each time a calibration is changed, the old calibration is recorded. By reviewing the calibration over time, you can detect changes in the material characteristics or the probe sensor and adjust accordingly.

The Precision Water System is designed to assist producers that

• have strong QC initiatives in place
• have processes that ensure trucks discharge their waste concrete and water before each load
• are committed to the calibration and maintenance of equipment in each plant

The Precision Water System can complement your existing efforts in these areas. the unknown sources of slump variability in a load. This diminishes or eliminates the need to overdesign mixes to compensate for previously unmanaged water. The end result to you is more consistent loads, yield, and decreased costs!

The Precision Water System includes the PWS Software Module and PWS Moisture Interface Controller Junction Box (MIC). One MIC will support up to 12 moisture probes. Moisture probes, Windows-based computer to run PWS software module, and cables are purchased separately.

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